Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri handed the president his proposed line-up for a national unity government on Monday, in a move swiftly rejected by opposition groups including the powerful Hezbollah, Reuters reported.
Hariri was designated prime minister in late June but has yet to reach agreement with the opposition on the new unity government, set to include the Syria- and Iran-backed Hezbollah and its allies.
He presented President Michel Suleiman with a draft 30-seat cabinet, including 10 portfolios for the Shi'ite group Hezbollah and its allies. The opposition alliance rejected the unilateral step because the draft had not been agreed with them.
"I do not think that the method employed today takes Lebanon out of the government formation crisis. On the contrary, it further complicates the problem," said Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose group was allocated two seats in Hariri's proposed cabinet.
Nasrallah described Hariri's move as inappropriate and said the prime minister-designate and his allies had not made any concessions in talks aimed at agreeing the new unity government.
It was Hezbollah's first public attack on Hariri since a June parliamentary election won by the Saudi- and U.S.-backed Sunni politician and his allies.
President Michel Suleiman, who took office last year as a consensus candidate, is not expected to approve any cabinet proposal that does not have unanimous support among factions whose rivalries spilled into armed conflict last year.
"The president informed me that he would study the formation," Hariri said after meeting Suleiman, who has said he wants the government in place before he travels to the U.N. General Assembly later this month.
The rival factions have agreed on the broad division of seats in the new cabinet. But Hariri, son of assassinated former prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, has struggled to reach agreement with opposition politicians on the details.
At the heart of the dispute are the demands of Christian leader Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah. Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement holds more seats in parliament than any other Christian party.
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